Q&A: Administrator on special education programs, funding

Meet Sara Jocham, assistant superintendent of special education at Capistrano Unified School District

Jocham, who started her career as a speech pathologist, worked as an administrator in Long Beach Unified School District and oversaw the East San Gabriel Valley Special Education Local Plan Areas for the Los Angeles County Office of Education.

Jocham has an 11-year-old daughter with autism, and she brings her personal and professional experience to bear in her roles on two state special education advisory boards.

Q. What are the two boards on which you serve, and what is your role on each?

A. The first is the Advisory Commission for Special Education. I was appointed by the State Board of Education. It’s a 15-member advisory commission and we present information to the Legislature, to the governor, to the state board in terms of best policies and practices for special education. There are governor’s appointees, state board appointees, legislator’s appointees. And a certain number are appointed as parents; I applied as a parent.

Q. Why did you apply?

A. I love my job. I love special education. I want to use my 20-plus years of experience in special education and help make changes statewide. As a parent, I see how things are different on that side of the table. It seemed like there were times when even with all of my knowledge and all of my expertise and with an Individualized Education Program team who knew who I was and what my job was, that it was still a challenge to get a proper IEP for my child.

Q. And you’re looking at IEPs in your role on the commission?

A. I’m on its quality support and services subcommittee. We just started looking at what other states are doing in shifting their IEPs towards being more student-centered or strength-based – those IEPs look at what are the student’s strengths versus their areas of deficit. Right now, the IEP’s goals are written in areas that the child has a deficit, such as if they’re behind in reading or if they’re behind in math.

Q. How do you think that change would be received by parents?

A. It’s really going to depend on what we find out. There are people who are comfortable with the status quo, but there are also many people who I talk to that say the yearly IEP meeting is sad. It’s hard because it basically tells them how far behind their child is. The way I understand strength-based, the focus is on what they’ve done and how to keep them moving forward rather than say, “They are still two years behind,” or, “They are not able to do these things like they’re peers.”

Q. What’s the second advisory board?

A. The other is relatively new: It’s the Statewide Special Education Taskforce. This is a private commission, and the funding for it came from the Charles and Helen Schwab Foundation. They had people from all over the state apply; they were looking for people who have different areas of expertise. We’re looking at all areas of special education, and they’ve broken us up into subcommittees: teacher preparation and credentialing, assessments, early education and funding – that’s the one I’m on. At the California Special Education Local Plan Areas, I’m the chair of the finance committee, so it was a natural fit. We’re looking at how we need to plan our budgets for students with special education with the new Local Control Funding Formula.

Q. How has special education funding changed under the new formula?

A. It hasn’t at this point. On the Local Control Accountability Plan template, every question asks about students with special needs and students with disabilities. (The plans are required by the state under the new funding formula, and call on school districts to set student achievement goals and to explain how, and with how much money, they will meet those goals.) What that means for us is ensuring the district doesn’t say, “They’re special education, their (special) money is over there.” There are special funding sources for special education. We get federal money called Local Educational Agency grants and state money under AB 602 (the state law that dictates the funding structure for special education). Throughout California, 35 to 40 percent of special education funding comes from districts’ general funds, so that means the special money we get isn’t enough to serve our kids. We have to explain that special education students are district kids first. They deserve access to whatever that base funding is, and because they’re special education, we’re going to layer on top of that the special funding.

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